Re: How to light subject (interior shot) and expose for background through window (exterior)?

Re: How to light subject (interior shot) and expose for background through window (exterior)?by Todd Terry on Mar 27, 2012 at 9:01:11 pm

[Steven Belcher]"at least one 1k filtered with some half or full blue"

That much gel is absolutely going to KILL your output. Full blue will turn that 1K into a nightlight. Probably about quarter blue would be all you want want, at most. If you are going to gel the windows though, you'd be far better off color correcting the windows as well... then your 1K output might be ok.

The ND gel is an ok idea... one way to do that one the cheap is get the smoky window film that they sell at our local Hancock Fabrics store (or online at hancockfabrics.com)....

It's absolutely dirt cheap (compared to the real stuff) and works just as well. I've used it tons of times. You might also want to go to a Lowes or Home Depot and pick up a roll of black screen door mesh... and use that with the gel as well if it needs knocking down more (although you can always double up the gel if needed, which you can't with mesh).

Yes, HMIs are the way to do it right, but if you don't have that resource these other ways will work.